New research suggests opioid dependency increases the risk of death for people within a four-year period if treated in a general healthcare setting.
The study examined morality rates of people with opioid use disorder in a general healthcare system, and compared that data with specialty addiction clinics.
The researchers analyzed electronic health records for almost 3,000 adult patients who were diagnosed with the disorder between 2006 and 2014.
The study found that by the end of their time period, 18-percent of those in their study had died from opioid use.
Wochit

A federal jury has found a Cincinnati area doctor guilty of prescribing oxycodone in Kentucky for illegitimate purposes. Court records show he prescribed a half-million doses in under one year.

On Wednesday, Alan Arnold Godofsky, 61, of Anderson Township, was found guilty of five counts of distributing oxycodone outside the scope of professional medical practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose. The operation was described as a pill mill according to medical licensing boards in Kentucky and Ohio.

“Sadly, this case represents yet another example of a physician abdicating his professional responsibility to his patients, placing his own profit over sound medical judgment, and fueling the opioid epidemic,” Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky Carlton S. Shier said.

According to prosecutors, from March 2011 through January 2012, Godofsky worked as a physician at Central Kentucky Bariatric and Pain Management, in Georgetown, where he prescribed significant quantities of oxycodone pills to patients.

The Georgetown facility was owned by Ernest William Singleton who also owned Grant Wellness Center in Dry Ridge, according to court documents. Singleton was convicted in 2013 of more than 20 charges.

At Godofsky's trial, patients testified about their treatment, court documents state. Prosecutors said Godofsky prescribed these drugs "without conducting examinations, without obtaining informed consent, and to patients who had no legitimate medical need."

According to documents from Singleton's appeal, Godofsky complained the Georgetown clinic was so busy "the doctors can't put in full notes and do the appropriate research." Singleton, according to the documents, said "Godofsky wasn't seeing enough patients" and "was dragging his feet and slowing down his care of the patients."

"If you don't give them what they want, they won't come back," Singleton told Godofsky, according to court documents.

As a result, Godofsky wrote 6,000 prescriptions for more than 500,000 oxycodone dosage units in under one year, according to court documents in Singleton's appeal.

Before Godofsky began working at the Georgetown clinic, he was an anesthesiologist who worked for a company that was contracted by Mercy Hospital Anderson to provide anesthesia for patients.

Mercy Health spokeswoman Nanette Bentley said Godofsky has not worked with Mercy Hospital Anderson since January 2010 but did see patients before then. Bentley said Mercy Health no longer has a contract with that company.

In 2012, Godofsky's medical license was placed on indefinite restriction by Kentucky, which still allowed him to practice anesthesiology and prescribe medications to patients undergoing surgery and diagnostic procedures. Similar restrictions were placed on Godofsky in Ohio and Indiana.